D-Composed Presents: D - Compressed

Gary Comer Youth Center

Designed to be an experience where guests can just be while listening to chamber music

D-Compressed - Music &amp; Meditation with D-Composed &amp; Cherish Hicks of Beyond Black chamber music collective D-Composed invites you to an evening of rest, relaxation, and well-being with their music and meditation experience, D-Compressed. While the D-Composed string quartet performs the works of Black composers, Cherish Hicks of Beyond will guide attendees through affirmations and sound bowl meditations, creating a meditative and reflective experience. Designed to be an experience where guests can just be while listening to chamber music, attendees are encouraged to bring their mats, blankets, pillows, or whatever is needed for a restful experience.About D-Composed Historians of art and culture may not currently take into full account that Black culture and creativity is a part of every musical institution's foundation that we currently see today.D-Composed, a Black chamber music collective, exists to ensure that we never forget it. Led by their mission to uplift and empower society through the music of Black composers, this Chicago based creative incubator acts as a bridge between the past and present to the future of representation, music centered experiences, and the communal power of Black composers and their impact. Music is not just solely entertainment, for this collective music is a storytelling tool that educates and inspires. Unapologetically Blackness is at the core of their experience, protecting, nurturing and sustaining, is on the other side. In the middle lies their impact - the people who make up these experiences, whether as a musician, a creative, or a community member. As a Black ensemble that focuses exclusively on the works of Black composers, D-Composed ensures to partner with institutions that have a proven commitment to communities of color. They’ve collaborated with Apple, Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Kennedy Center, Kaufman Music Center, and TEDx. While merging the worlds of contemporary music and classical, they’ve also collaborated with Jamila Woods during her appearance on The Late Show with Stepen Colbert and hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper. The walls that exist to keep Black people out of America’s most beloved cultural institutions are meant to be scaled and then dismantled by the creative architects who are bold enough to build against the status quo.The meaning of the collective’s name embodies that boldness in action. D–COMPOSED /DEE-KUHM-POHZD/ – ADVERB - Our creative process that involves the breaking down of preconceived notions, barriers, and opinions of what people think classical music should be to re-writing our own narrative to reflect what the classical world could be. About Cherish Hicks Cherish is the founder of Beyond, a wellness collective whose mission is to “create spaces of light.” She discovered profound healing and transformation through studying mindfulness. Out of this process she developed a method of self empowering meditation. Her goal is to create safe, inclusive spaces designed to foster physical and emotional healing to inspire balance through mindfulness.